Practical Tips for Productive Living

22 Swift Tips to Increase Productivity

An increase in productivity saves time, the most valuable constituent of life. Take heed to these swift tips and the victory dance shall be yours.

If you want to catch fish, and really enjoy the sport, you
will maintain your lures and line in some organized fashion.
The best at it will always have their tackle ready.
– David Allen

Clutter hinders productivity. Clear clutter. – “Trash what you don’t need. Get rid of the duplicates of the duplicates. And quickly delete those e-mails or attachments from your mother or your best friend that you “just have to forward.” Yeah, they’re funny, cute, and heartwarming, but they are cluttering up your life and your inbox!” – via Frugal Dad

Create a dedicated workspace for yourself. – “Do not share your workspace with wives, girlfriends, work associates (you may not have any say in this one). People need a sense of ownership in their tools. They need to know that the tool that they need that minute is available and not being used by someone else.” – via Black Belt Productivity

The first step is the most important step. Take it. – “The most difficult part of investing is taking that first step. Writing that first check and sending it off to open an account is where many people falter in the process. It’s always easier to procrastinate and “give it some thought,” but you will have no success until you begin.” – via The Wisdom Journal

Create separate to-do lists for the home, office, grocery store, etc. – “Basically, you need to ask yourself: What can I accomplish right now, based on where I am and what tools are in front of me? and then focus only on those tasks. GTD simplifies that process by breaking down your lists into separate contexts, so you only need to worry about the context you’re in right now, and not about any other contexts” – via Zen Habits

Ask yourself: Why am I really doing this? – “We fool ourselves into thinking that we are doing something because we want to accomplish an audacious goal, but in reality we may be doing it for someone else. You have to do some soul searching and make sure that you really want to accomplish this goal.” – via Work Happy Now

Concentrate on the most important tasks. – “I for one have never accomplished everything I’ve ever needed to do in one day. But that’s the very reason why trying to do too much will set us up for failure. To put it bluntly, if we think we’ll successfully check off a 20-item to-do list within 24 hours, we’re kidding ourselves.” – Simple Mom

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. – “The most strategic time to think about the actions you need to take is not when you need to perform them, but beforehand, when you have perspective. When you execute from an inventory of predefined tasks, you can act rather than react, and your menu of options is much easier to prioritize.” – via Tools For Thought

Focus. Focus. Focus. – “I am suggesting from personal experience that having one primary focus and diving into it completely with all your being will give you a higher chance at success. Having said that, you are free to work on multiple goals at the same time, some people can pull it off without stress, most cannot.” – via Think Simple Now

Do it right the first time. – “Why do a job if you aren’t going to do it right? We need to develop the habit of giving every task our best effort. Excellence should be the standard we strive for in all we do. We can’t start letting ourselves or our children do the least possible to get by. If we do, then they are going to receive less than the best results from their work.” – via My Super-Charged Life

Only spend time on the things you CAN control. – “Our impulsive thoughts always tend to waste our life-energy by focusing on things that we cannot control… Dwell more on what you can do rather than what you cannot. It’s not the circumstances that cause us to react in a certain way, it’s rather a certain way we choose to react to the circumstances that matters most to win against the odds.” – via Success Soul

Set time limits for yourself. – “One of the simplest things I do to increase my productivity is to use a timer throughout the day. I don’t always need it, but on days when I need the boost, it is the first thing I turn to. For 30 minutes, I work like this, racing the clock and challenging myself to have it all done before the buzzer goes off. By the end, I am exhilarated, accomplished, and feel relaxed because I am no longer looking at what was an overwhelming mess 30 minutes earlier.” – via Remodeling This Life

Use your talents to your advantage. – “If you’ve got good people skills, then it means taking the time to engage as many folks as you can in conversation. Whatever your best talents are, use them as often as possible. It’s always good to stretch yourself, but there’s no reason not to use your natural talents to your advantage.” – via On Simplicity

Take one bite of the elephant at a time. – “It’s important to know how long to run a race before you start. Starting off a marathon by sprinting isn’t going to get you to the finish line. Similarly, taking on every possible GTD, lifehack or to-do list upgrade at the same time isn’t a winning strategy.” – via The Change Blog

Always be ready to capture your ideas. – “As a serial entrepreneur, I’m addicted to ideas. I feed off of ‘em. And nothing makes me more upset than having a great idea… and losing it. Ideas never happen at opportune times, and having the proper idea capture tools can make sure that you’ll capture all your ideas for later processing.” – via LifeDev

Motivate others. Inject energy into your environment. – “When a dance floor is empty at a party, most people simply won’t be the first people to start dancing, even if they want to. It often takes somebody who is confident and who is acting through their intentions (doing what they want to do) to dance before others. This is then a trigger to others that allows them to start dancing as it seems normal.” – via PluginID

Do more work when you’re motivated. – “Why I do this? Because there will be times when I’m just super lazy and nothing can change it. By doing extra work when I’m motivated, I will feel less guilty about being lazy sometime later… and I’ll get more done.” – via LessonInLife

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Comments

Thanks for the list and also a few new blogs to explore, I like # 23, “How to get things done in one minute”. I would like to add #24 “Get 22 Useful Productivity Tips in One Minute”, you simply have to read the tips on this post, pick one, two, three or 22 and start doing it now.

A great list. I liked #18 Always be ready to capture ideas. Whether being a blogger or a scientist we always have to be ready to capture those ideas that resonate with our soul. It’s these ideas that are going to be successful.

There’s an obvious need to focus on the most important tasks and set a realistic schedule of what you want to accomplish in a day.

But a lot of times I think we sabotage ourselves. We’re more productive and then what do we do with the free time we have left over? We try to get more things done. This is a serious betrayal. You told yourself the reason for getting things done is to have more free time, and then you sell yourself out to get more things done. This just creates a vicious cycle where you end up resenting productivity.

Anyway, that’s my productivity tip for the day. After you finish the things on your list for the day. Stop. You’ll be more motivated the next day to finish what you want to do.

@Jonathan: Well stated. This is exactly why we must set a realistic number of goals for ourselves each day. Too few goals, and not enough gets done. Too many goals, and we stress ourselves out. Happiness and success always rests inbetween the extremes.

Doing things that you can control is the best advice for me. Focusing on a task whose end you can influence will certainly get you closer to attaining your goals versus concentration on something that will not tick off a task in your to-do list. The first thing I do when I get to work is write down my to-do list for the day. That way, I can keep track of my progress as I go along.

Thanks for the list, and for including me on it. Re: “Get straight to the point,” I’ve been thinking of this one lately. One tip I found is to say (kindly) “I got it.” Use this when someone is spiraling deep into a topic that won’t help the conversation. It’s coming increasingly in handy…

Hi,
These have been very good tips. I liked them because they are simple and concrete.

I also would like to share the Time Management Master blog with you. It is a collection of about 200 concrete time saving tips on how to gain an extra hour every day. Tips can be applied at home, at work or on the road.

Thanks for the nice collection! A lot of useful thoughts.
However, I always found it difficult to apply these principles in real life. There is a free version of DAISHO available, an integrated goal and time management software which helps on planning and keeping the focus on the important things.